Babel
Overview Babel’s architecture is dramatic and unique; it certainly can’t be said to have any cultural precedent anywhere. The city encompasses a lake, and not merely on its shores - beautiful buildings actually float above the surprisingly pristine water, and a massive underwater complex lies hidden from sight on the bed of the lake. Babel isn’t just a city, it’s a sphere enveloping the lake from every side. The three distinct sections of the city - the floating buildings, the lakeshore town, and the underwater complex - aren’t just differentiated by height, but are divided by social strata. Each area is its own district, with its own name. Eden Eden is comprised of buildings levitated by magic, a tremendous feat of enchantment unprecedented in Pangaea. Enchantment is mysterious enough as it is, an expensive practice that’s always been the province of the rich, and no one has any idea how a gravity spell could be so powerful as to keep buildings permanently afloat. However, it’s become such an accepted fact that no one really questions it anymore these days - except outsiders, of course. It’s one of the easiest ways to recognize an outsider, easier than spotting a New York tourist. Eden is a beautiful district, carefully maintained; it even has several floating parks, along with most of the cultural features of the city, such as libraries and museums. Many places are connected with beautiful, swaying bridges, made of flexible cord that is magically stengthened to be far stronger than any normal cord of appreciable thickness could be. The bridges are covered by woven terraces of vines and flowers, making for pleasant walking. Though, of course, if walking is too slow or exhausting for you, there are also cable cars zipping in majestic (and magical) silence along other wires - beneath the level of the bridges, of course. The view of the sky from Eden is not just breathtaking, but a privilege; the residents ensure that the view isn’t overly cluttered. Buildings actually rise and sink at scheduled times throughout the day, allowing for views of the horizon over them. Eden is the wealthiest district of Babel, and self-evidently so. It’s also here that the most white-collar crime happens, that the prospects of those districts below are drowned beneath the murky waters of politics and shady deals. It’s also here that classism and xenophobia are at their strongest...making the hypocrisy all the more damning that it’s common practice for the wealthy of Eden to discreetly make trips undewater to the brothels of Persephone, seeking sex in general and sex with outsiders specifically. It’s considered a mark of status to be able to afford having a beautiful piece of exotic outsider arm candy...in respectable places, of course. It would be the height of indiscretion to actually be caught going down to Persephone to get them, much less to be openly seen going to a brothel. Sex is scandalous in Eden, at least so far as openly acknowledging one indulges in it. The only thing more scandalous and looked down upon in Eden than an openly sexual nature - or the less wealthy, or outsiders - is new money. Those few successful and prosperous enough to actually be able to afford to move into Eden will find themselves icily shut out from all social circles, the target of vicious rumors and every power play the wealthy know in efforts to send them back down where they belong. This stigma usually lasts for at least a full generation, but after that it gradually dies off and the new money finally becomes, simply, money. Which is, of course, good anywhere. Should one manage to lose enough money and status to be forced to leave Eden, that’s usually considered the same thing as death. All ties with Eden are broken; no one who knew the unfortunate before will have anything to do with them afterwards, as though they fear catching ruin off them. Citizens of Debella are less than charitable to such unfortunates; citizens of Persephone will take what little they have left and likely stab them. Very few ruined Eden-dwellers survive their fall. The only way to reach Eden is through a telepad, which connects to another in Debella. Both ends of the telepad are guarded around the clock, and one has to connect themselves to the telepad’s computer to confirm their ID and level of access to activate the pad at all. (One person with access can take up to three other people through with them, but this is carefully monitored by the guards.) Only someone with biotech can activate the pad; with express permission from an Eden resident, including signed consent, a guard will activate the pad for someone without a biotech jack. No one is permitted into Eden who doesn’t live there, work there, or who hasn’t been invited/escorted in by someone who lives there. Security measures when leaving Eden are much less strict, though only Eden residents are allowed to leave without a patdown. Very rarely, an Eden citizen may own a helicopter. These certainly exist and are legal in Pangaea, but they’re deeply frowned on in Babel. It’s considered a grave risk to Eden, that some unwelcome party might learn how to operate the machine (or stow away on it) and thus sneak into the district. Risking the privacy of the district is considered incredibly crass, and only the most eccentric rich would risk becoming a social pariah for such a machine. Debella Debella is the sprawling suburbia on the shore of Lake Dyne. It’s a relatively pleasant environment, the buildings attractive and with a comfortable continental style - which sadly belies the crime-ridden nature of the district. While it can’t be said to be as crime-ruled as Persephone itself, its reputation as being more prosperous than Persephone means that it experiences more petty crime than any other district - it’s the only district with open access that’s likely to have things that might be worth stealing. However, there’s quite a bit of active police presence here, and efforts to quell - or at least punish - crime in Debella are very proactive. This is largely a policy of self-interest; the residents of Eden fiercely resent and restrict any encroachment on their district by residents of the others. Keeping Debella a place where people are content to live, rather than a place where they set their sights higher, keeps invaders to a minimum. Debella is the only district that sees much in the way of land-based transportation within the city. Aside from buses and taxis, some of its residents are wealthy enough to own their own vehicles. Thanks to the incorporation of magic into their function, vehicles no longer pollute, but they require magical fuel. This tends to be quite expensive, but not much is needed to keep a vehicle running for some time, so it balances out somewhat. For trips that would be particularly long, of course, there are the ferries - large boats with none of the ponderousness of an earthly boat. They skim as lightly and quickly across the water as a sport boat, and are the speediest method of travel between opposite points of the lake. A family can live a comfortable life in Debella - even springing for a few extravagances a year - if they’re careful with their finances and have gainful employment. Or have an established source of discreet criminal finances; truthfully, either is equally likely in Debella. Many people who live in Debella don’t work there, instead commuting to either Eden or Persephone to do work (or crime) there instead. Those that do work in Debella are largely in service jobs - serving at restauraunts, retail work in shops, custodial work. Most of the jobs in Debella don’t actually pay enough to live off of unless you have two, or three; typically, teenagers living at home take these jobs to earn extra money, while adults are forced to seek more profitable ventures in another district. (And there are plenty of teenagers in Debella, as the values of this district are also the most family-friendly; there’s neither the haughty prudishness of Eden, nor the raw sensuality of Persephone.) However, fishing and ranching are both profitable careers for adults; ranching is done exclusively on the outskirts of Debella, while on the shores of the lake men run carefully regulated fish farms. (Saltwater fish have to be shipped in all the way from the coasts of Pangaea, and are prohibitively expensive; no one wants to drive any lake fish to extinction.) Debella has telepads to both Eden and Persephone. The Eden telepad is guarded around the clock, and has numerous restrictions as to who can pass through. The Persephone telepad has to be activated by either one’s biotech jack or a personal ID card, but has no guards (although cops may occasionally be stationed there during manhunts) and no other regulations. Persephone Persephone is the poorest district of the city, although the extensive underwater complex it consists of certainly impresses at first. However, the interior is rather cramped and claustrophobic, and tends toward the dim and dingy. Much of Babel’s industry is underwater, keeping it well away from the more attractive and prosperous districts of the city. There is pollution control - largely to keep it from escaping to the surface, or poisoning all the workers below - but not so much as to really keep Persephone clean. Travel in Persephone mirrors travel in both Eden and Debella in some ways. Like Eden, it has cable cars, although these run along its streets. Like Debella, it has cars and taxis and buses as well. However, personally owned cars are quite rare in Persephone. And despite the tremendous level of criminal activity in Persephone, almost none of it is car-related. It’s understood that usually the only people rich enough to own a personal vehicle are members of the powerful gangs and criminal families that populate the district, and that you’d be found and horribly murdered for damaging or stealing their rides. The district is, unlike the others, divided into clear sections of its own. One end of the complex is devoted purely to industry of all kinds - dirty, tedious, dangerous, unglamorous jobs that few but the poor would consent to do. Manufacturing plants, textile factories, vehicle assembly plants, food processing - anything no one else wants to do, or would demand more pay to do, is done down in Persephone. The middle of the compex, standing between the industry and entertainment sectors, is devoted to housing. There are some individual buildings, permitting families to have their own houses, but this is relatively rare. Most of the residental sector is large apartment buildings, with even the largest families being forced to live in a relatively small space. The apartments are more and more luxurious, with fewer and larger apartments on each floor, as one goes higher up the building; the last few floors from the top of these complexes are essentially condominiums. Often these condos belong to criminal kingpins and their immediate subordinates, with each apartment building being known to house a certain criminal family or gang. It’s not unheard of for these groups to take personal offense if someone from their building is hurt or harassed on their premises, or for residents of a gang building to take a certain pride in being faintly connected to that gang. Often children who grow up in a gang building choose to join that gang as adults. On the far end of Persephone, in stark contrast to to the run-down looks of the rest of the district, is the entertainment sector. For how poor it is, Persephone has a glut of ways to frivolously spend one’s money. There are casinos, theaters, carnivals, tattoo parlors, bars, strip clubs, sex shops, and - easily outnumbering anything else - brothels. (Truthfully, these and strip clubs are often the same thing.) Pleasure sells in Persephone - especially to the rich, who have the most cash to spend, so it makes economic sense to court them. And the thing that sells best to the rich is sex. The more profitable - and thus more luxurious - brothels are the ones with rich patrons. Many residents of Eden will pour money into their favorite cathouse in exchange for having some sway in what accomodations they offer - how well-furnished they are, what sort of workers they hire, having a room or time reserved for them, etc. Others are funded by the criminal families of Persephone, and offered protection by the same. There’s no extortion involved in such protection; any brothel offered sponsorship by a gang must first be profitable in its own right, and it’s considered a mutually beneficial business venture. The business of whoring in Persephone is highly cutthroat. The prostitutes in highest demand, with connections to rich clients or powerful families, have the freedom to behave like divas, while being courted by every bordello in the district to come take clients through them and elevate their business by association. But of all the prostitutes in Persephone, the ones always in highest demand are outsiders. Traditionally, only one brothel in Persephone offers them - though which brothel is most in favor, and as a result can supply them, has shifted occasionally over the years. (It’s been rumored that it’s not just popularity that decides this, but politics.) Currently, the Subrosa Bordello has that coveted spot. Category:Worldbuilding Category:Geography